The importance of button shapes in UI Design

October 4, 2014

User Interface designers have long preferred the use of rounded corners to straight-edged ones in their designs. The reasons go far beyond aesthetics. Rectangles with rounded corners take less cognitive effort to visually process than a rectangle with sharp edges. Rounded corners are also more natural and organic to how we use objects in our physical world. We are intuitively attracted to things that appear to be organic in nature. When we interact with objects that minimize sharp lines and corners the result is a user experience with a smoother, more natural feel. Rounded corners also make effective content containers. Rounded corners point inward towards the center of the rectangle, where we place important content. By contrast, sharp corners with right angles lead the user’s eyes outward away from the button, putting less focus on the contents.